Glimpse of Argos: The Craft Behind the Words

Check out the next interview in our “Glimpse of Argos” series. Today, our guest is Şule Koman Keskin, transcreation and medical translation expert.

In this interview, Şule reflects on her career, the challenges of terminology in a fast-changing industry, and why mutual respect and clear communication sit at the heart of every good collaboration.

The interview

Tell us a bit about yourself.

Şule Koman Keskin: I live in Istanbul and work as a freelance English-to-Turkish translator and reviewer. I have been working in this field for over 17 years. I started out as a freelance translator, then spent 13 years at a localization company as a full-time reviewer, and after leaving that company, I returned to freelancing. My main areas of expertise are medical, technical, and life sciences translation. Over the past few years, however, I have developed a new area of interest: game localization. I have fully translated one indie game into Turkish, which is my first and only experience in game translation, since the majority of my work remains in medical translation.

What got you interested in medical translations?

Şule Koman Keskin: It’s an interesting story. I started this journey when I was a student. I was studying American Culture and Literature, and of course I needed money at the time. There were no localization companies back then, but there was a copy center near the Faculty of Medicine. One day, the man who ran the copy center asked me whether I wanted to translate homework assignments for the medical students. I said yes, and that is how my journey into medical translation began. I am still in it today. I enjoyed the work and kept at it. This game translation is more of a hobby, but I like it.

Tell us more about your game translation hobby.

Şule Koman Keskin: Well, it was my friend’s company, and she told me about an indie game. It’s a lifestyle game where you do things like farming and cooking. I agreed to help her, and it turned out to be really hard. Translating a game is difficult because you actually need to play it. First of all, you have to be a player, a gamer yourself. It was hard but very enjoyable, and I think I managed it well.

So it’s good to be flexible. How did your partnership with Argos start?

Şule Koman Keskin: As I said before, I worked for a localization company for 13 years. They were working for Argos, and I was responsible for the Argos medical and technical accounts. I really put so much effort into it, and I didn’t want to lose the opportunity to continue with Argos. So I applied, and we started working together.

Why do you continue working with Argos? What do you appreciate about this collaboration?

Şule Koman Keskin: I appreciate that Argos respects my experience and provides me with jobs where I can use that experience and grow it at the same time through new accounts.

Do you see any challenges in the industry right now?

Şule Koman Keskin: In the language industry in general, I think the biggest challenge is terminology management and standardization, especially in my area of expertise. There is no globally used terminology. There are some terms in certain areas that are used worldwide, but one brand will use one term while another brand uses a different one. This leads to inconsistency in terminology management. And with AI entering the translation business, all of this inconsistent terminology gets fed into the AI, so you can end up seeing inconsistent terminology even within the same document. I think that is the biggest challenge in the industry.

Are there any technologies that can help with this challenge, or any technologies in general that you are excited about?

Şule Koman Keskin: I think the most exciting technology nowadays is, of course, artificial intelligence. I think it can be used to create consistent terminology, but I don’t know exactly how the process should work. I’m talking about Turkish terminology consistency, of course. Maybe the language schools at universities could develop some kind of program, and it could be managed that way.

What is something you wish you had known before starting out in this industry?

Şule Koman Keskin: Good question. I think it is a lot of work. When I first started translating, I thought, okay, this seems like good work. I know English and I know Turkish, so I can translate anything. But it is not like that. You have to search and do a lot of research. It would have been better if I had known that research is a very important part of this translation work.

So you need to search for the nuances?

Şule Koman Keskin: Yes. New technologies, or whatever device you are translating for, you have to research it and understand it. It is really very important.

We talked about what the partnership with Argos looks like, but what do you think is important for the collaboration to work? Any particular traits?

Şule Koman Keskin: First of all, it is mutual respect, I suppose. That is the first thing. I have to respect the project managers and the clients and their requests, and of course they have to respect and trust my experience. And clear communication, I think, is most important, because translation work is communication. So clear communication is essential.

What advice would you give to someone just entering the industry without any previous knowledge? What should they know?

Şule Koman Keskin: First of all, they should really know their native language well. Then they have to specialize in a subject matter. It makes everything easier and more convenient if you specialize. I think that is very critical. And always keep learning, always keep track of new technologies, especially new developments in AI. A translator, a reviewer, a linguist should always keep learning. That is the advice I can give.

It’s interesting that you say you have to know your own language, that being a native speaker isn’t enough. You actually have to know it deeply.

Şule Koman Keskin: Yes, it is very important. It is more important than the source language, really.

And the last one for this part: how do you envision the future of your work, and your work with Argos?

Şule Koman Keskin: Our industry is changing rapidly with machine translation and AI improving every day. Manual translation is slowly going away. But I know this leads to an increase in review jobs and quality assurance or evaluation work. I think our job is heading in that direction, not translating manually but reviewing translations. And I think our collaboration with Argos will go that way too.

Şule Koman Keskin

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